Part 18 (1/2)

Christianity, as it was given by Jesus to the apostles, and by the apostles to mankind, was as perfect as the G.o.d who gave it. Our whole duty then is this, that we should restore primitive and apostolic Christianity again to the world. Many reformers have sought to do this; but they have only reformed in part. Though they fled from Babylon they stopped short of Jerusalem.

We can not pause in this work which we have begun. We can not allow ourselves to grow cold and our churches to die.

We must go forward in that path in which the rays of our glorious sun--the Sun of Righteousness--grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

G.o.d does not make Christians as he created Adam out of the dust of the earth. He works by _means_: ”How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” G.o.d works through the voice of the Bible scattered over the world.

If any doubt this, let them reflect that among all the millions of men that inhabit the whole earth not one becomes a Christian save him who either hears or reads of a crucified Saviour.

Money is the sinews of this war. True, there is peril in money. It is not safe to be rich; and it is admitted that by wealth preachers may be corrupted. But this is not the present danger. The present peril is, that haggard want, stalking in at the preacher's door, will paralyze his tongue, make his knees feeble and his hands heavy, and turn away his heart from his proper work to the question, What shall I eat? and what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? The preacher is told to put his trust in the Lord. But when, after long waiting, no ravens come to feed him, he sometimes loses his heart, and says, ”I go a fis.h.i.+ng.” Surely the brethren will not have a controversy with the Lord. They will not deny that he has appointed that ”they that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel.”

It is by no weak, sickly, faint-hearted, lukewarm, languid, and spasmodic efforts that the cause is to be kept alive. G.o.d will have all or nothing. This is an age in which, if never before, both good men and bad men are truly in earnest. The devil is fearfully and terribly in earnest ”Therefore rejoice you heavens, and you that dwell in them Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time.”

_We must give till we feel it. The widow's mite was most precious in the eyes of Jesus, because it was her all_.

The objects we aim at are unquestionably scriptural. ”Go disciple all nations.” This was the Saviour's last command. To sustain our missionaries by the free-will offering of our brethren--this is also scriptural.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

In the year 1865 the State meeting was held at Prairie City. Meantime, however, a vigorous local district organization had been maintained from the first in Northeastern Kansas. This year its annual meeting was held at Leavenworth City, continuing from the first till the 4th of June. In addition to the ordinary purposes for which this meeting was held, it undertook to perfect the Missionary Society that had been organized the preceding year at Tec.u.mseh.

Among all the conventions held in Kansas, whether of State or District, this must be regarded as the most notable:

1. It offers devout thanksgiving to the Lord for the return of peace to the nation: ”_Resolved_, That with hearts full of grat.i.tude to Almighty G.o.d, we hail the return of peace to our long distracted country.”

2. After seven years of labor, beginning in 1858, and ending in 1865, notwithstanding the disorders of the period, this Convention is able to give a tabulated report of seventy-nine churches organized in the State with their bishops, deacons and evangelists, and having an aggregate of 3,020.

3. It is able to report a missionary society, that in the eight months intervening between the Tec.u.mseh State meeting and the present Convention, has collected and paid over to its four evangelists--J; H.

Bauserman, Pardee Butler, S. G. Brown and J. J. Trott--the sum of $827.

4. The Convention was able to adjourn, full of hope and enthusiasm, and to promise itself that it would do a still better work in the time to come.

The names of the following persons appear as the accredited messengers of the churches: Leavenworth--J. C. Stone, G. H. Field, S. A.

Marshal, H. Allen, J. T. Gardiner, Calvin Reasoner. Ottumwa--J. T.

c.o.x, Wm. Gans, J. Jenks, Peter Smith. Tec.u.mseh--J. Driver, M. Driver, A. J. Alderman. Americus--W. C. Butler, S. S. Chapman. Le Roy--S. G.

Brown, Allen Crocker. Little Stranger--J. H. Bauserman, S. A.

Lacefield, J. Adams, J. P. Bauserman. Iola--S. Brown. Nine Mile--N. D.

Tyler, J. T. Goode, H. d.i.c.kson. Garnett--J. Ramsey, H. Cavender.

Holton--E. Cope, J. P. Nichols, T. G. Walters, A. B. Scholes.

Pardee--Pardee Butler, N. Dunshee. Belmont--J. J. Trott. Monrovia--J.

N. Holliday, John Graves, Caleb May. Mt. Pleasant--Joseph Potter, Thomas Miller, Joseph McBride, N. Humber. Olathe P. E. Henderson, John Elston, Martin Davenport, Addison Bowen. Lanesfield--O. S. Laws, Wm.

Maxwell, H. C. Maxwell. Prairie City--H. H. Johnson. Buck Creek--C. M.

Short, Thomas Finch, Martin Stoddard. Gra.s.shopper Falls--James Ritter, S. Smith. Winchester--Cyrus Taylor, A. R. Cantwell.